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Friday, April 9, 2010

A group of college friends on a spring break camping trip are stalked and slashed by an unknown creature with the ability to make them hallucinate through sound waves. The survivors hold up refuge in an isolated farmhouse, cut off from all communication. Now, they have to come up with a plan to kill this unrelenting creature before it kills them. "Banshee!!!" takes the idea of the legendary Irish myth and spins it around into a terrifying and unstoppable monster! Thus is the synopsis of the new indie horror film Banshee!!! I have read some other reviews of the film in which they were not too kind. I, however, enjoyed this film. Not as much as I have some of the other indie horror I have had the pleasure of screening lately, but it still kept my interest throughout. While the story and concept were great, the film was not without it's flaws. There were a few major potholes in the plot, for example, it is never explained where the Banshee came from or what it was doing and why. The acting wasn't top notch, which is to be expected, but it could have been better than it was. The most disappointing thing was the ending. The film leads up to what should be a huge climax with all but two characters dying. The way they build it up, you are expecting a grand battle with the beast and our final two antagonists. What we are left with, however, is a strobe effect. We get two quick flashes of action rotated off with a black screen. That's it. Are you serious!!?? That just pissed me off. Thankfully, we are given a final scene that has M.J. Kelly and Shawn C. Phillips (Coolduder of You Tube fame) in a pleasing comedic performance. It was not enough to save the film though. The other bright spot in Banshee was Officer Jul, played by Kerry McGann. Aside from being pretty, her acting kept the film out of becoming a complete cheesefest. So I recommend this film for the story and originality, but not much else.